The cost of fuel has one of the most significant impacts on the operating costs of an aircraft. However, many variable factors that bear on both fuel costs and fuel utilization make minimizing fuel costs a difficult task. If a pilot simply uploads fuel at the lowest price at a Fixed Base Operator (“FBO”) at their origination airport, they could miss taking advantage of an even lower priced fuel opportunity at an FBO along the way to their final destination. On the other hand, a pilot cannot always reduce their total fuel cost by simply flying to the least expensive FBO while on the way to their destination because the additional fuel burned due to the further distance traveled and the additional weight of the fuel upload, both of which may vary based on factors such as altitude, weather, and speed, increase the fuel burned to get back to the planned route and may not make a significant impact on the total cost of the flight. There is even greater potential to minimize fuel costs when the aircraft is scheduled to stop at multiple destinations. However, because of the number of factors that affect fuel costs and optimization coupled with the inability of pilots to easily access the necessary data, pilots currently have to rely on the input from several sources that only marginally improve operating costs because the data may not be current.
For example, US published patent application 2010/0191458 discloses using systems for calculating routes between an origination airport and a destination airport to reduce fuel costs. However, such systems only optimize fuel costs from a single origin to a single destination. Thus, such systems may direct a pilot to fill their aircraft at a “cheapest” FBO when in fact the aircraft may stop at a cheaper FBO at a later destination.
Improved aircraft fuel optimization systems and methods are desired.
While systems and methods are described herein by way of examples and embodiments, those skilled in the art recognize that systems and methods for aircraft fuel optimization are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. The drawings and descriptions are not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Any headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used herein, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to) rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.